Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle side portion structure.
Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2010-167978 discloses a joining portion structure between a roof side rail and a center pillar (also referred to as “the B pillar”). In JP-A No. 2010-167978, an upper end portion of a pillar stiffener is joined to the roof side rail and the roof side rail is joined to the center pillar.
An upper wall of the roof side rail and the upper end portion of the pillar stiffener are disposed in a horizontal direction. Therefore, deformation of the roof side rail and the center pillar to the vehicle inner side in response to input of a load from sideward is suppressed.
However, in a structure based on the joining structure recited in JP-A No. 2010-167978, depending on the direction of input of an impact load when there is a side collision, a roof side rail outer with a cross-sectional shape that protrudes to the vehicle width direction outer side is deformed such that a ridgeline formed in the front-and-rear direction displaces to the vehicle inner side and the cross section opens up. Thus, there is further scope for improvement in suppressing deformation, including this deformation, to the vehicle inner side when there is a side collision.